The first kinds of the ocular defence against the external pathological agents are the numerous portions of the protein fractions present in the tear fluid. They, in fact, are able to show a specific and a no specific antimicrobial activity with Ig, lisozime and lactoferrin. These substances play a very important role to maintain the anatomic-functional integrity of the eye, particularly of the cornea and the conjunctiva. So we considered very interesting to evaluate in this study the tear protein pattern of the buffalo, with the aim to obtain the reference physiological parameters. The study is performed on 15 buffalos, females, with age ranged from 6 to 11 years, reared at the Velo’s farm in Torregrotta (Me), Italy. The tear sample, token on both eyes, is subjected to the agarose gel electrophoresis to obtain the separation, the identification and the amount of every protein fractions. Particularly, albumin, lactoferrin and immunoglobulin are determined; the migration of the tear protein allowed to identify other bands on the gel’s strip, correlated probably to the presence of the protein fractions with different molecular weight.

The first kinds of the ocular defence against the external pathological agents are the numerous portions of the protein fractions present in the tear fluid. They, in fact, are able to show a specific and a no specific antimicrobial activity with Ig, lisozime and lactoferrin. These substances play a very important role to maintain the anatomic-functional integrity of the eye, particularly of the cornea and the conjunctiva. So we considered very interesting to evaluate in this study the tear protein pattern of the buffalo, with the aim to obtain the reference physiological parameters. The study is performed on 15 buffalos, females, with age ranged from 6 to 11 years, reared at the Velo’s farm in Torregrotta (Me), Italy. The tear sample, token on both eyes, is subjected to the agarose gel electrophoresis to obtain the separation, the identification and the amount of every protein fractions. Particularly, albumin, lactoferrin and immunoglobulin are determined; the migration of the tear protein allowed to identify other bands on the gel’s strip, correlated probably to the presence of the protein fractions with different molecular weight.